10-05-2012, 03:25 PM
Hi,
What an interesting project John and good luck with it. Have you considered completely stripping the chair right back to it's individual parts and would this be at all possible if you could separate all the joints without causing further damage?
Has hot hide glue been used for original assembly and if so then the chair should come apart but it won't be a quick fix. Separate parts will be easier to work on and repair than trying to work on the whole chair at once although you appear to be doing a good job of it so far. With the chair in pieces the old finish will also be easier to remove unless you wish to preserve it but as you say it is flaking off and the more work you do will possibly aggravate this.
Sorry to turn a repair into a huge restoration for you John and find you a great deal extra work but the end result would last for many years to come.
I've never restored a chair but I've managed to restore some very rough radio cabinets and a basket case TV cabinet that a skip would have rejected. Sometimes trying to repair the whole takes a lot longer than completely stripping and starting from scratch.
I love work and could watch you do it all day but I wouldn't suggest using such a method unless I would attempt it myself. Monetary wise and the number of hours it will take won't make it a viable proposition at all but then we aren't in the hobby to make money and such a nice project will be deemed a labour of love.
Kind regards, Col.
What an interesting project John and good luck with it. Have you considered completely stripping the chair right back to it's individual parts and would this be at all possible if you could separate all the joints without causing further damage?
Has hot hide glue been used for original assembly and if so then the chair should come apart but it won't be a quick fix. Separate parts will be easier to work on and repair than trying to work on the whole chair at once although you appear to be doing a good job of it so far. With the chair in pieces the old finish will also be easier to remove unless you wish to preserve it but as you say it is flaking off and the more work you do will possibly aggravate this.
Sorry to turn a repair into a huge restoration for you John and find you a great deal extra work but the end result would last for many years to come.
I've never restored a chair but I've managed to restore some very rough radio cabinets and a basket case TV cabinet that a skip would have rejected. Sometimes trying to repair the whole takes a lot longer than completely stripping and starting from scratch.
I love work and could watch you do it all day but I wouldn't suggest using such a method unless I would attempt it myself. Monetary wise and the number of hours it will take won't make it a viable proposition at all but then we aren't in the hobby to make money and such a nice project will be deemed a labour of love.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
